Wonderful Women. . . . . .

I've met all these women during my travels and I'm betting not a single one of them is losing sleep or pulling out her hair because of NEW Blogger!  Each is a special woman of the world. Their countries, Japan, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Botswana, Zambia etc. may be different in many ways, but beautiful ladies working hard, smiling big, enjoying life, are probably not sitting around for hours wondering about how to post on a blog, right? Hopefully they are well, happy, and getting on with their lives.

Now I'm beginning to wonder myself as to why I'm doing just that. . . . . . .sitting here frustrated, wasting time, angry, and wondering why there are people out there, somewhere, making decisions to change what has been so easy and successful for millions of people for so long.

They even call the old and apparently doomed version, 'LEGACY Blogger' - shouldn't a legacy

 remain, be always available?

This was an eye opener when I looked up the meanings of 'legacy' this morning - enough said!

      adjective : COMPUTING 

                                                      denoting or relating to software or hardware that has been superseded

                                        but is difficult to replace because of its wide use.           

                           

For me, blogging used to be because I thought my family would some day enjoy reading what their mother/grandma/great grandma got up to in her later years. That they would gasp or grin over her travels and adventures, enjoy seeing her photos - some of which are quite good - and many from far off wild places around the globe where most people don't visit. I thought they would have a giggle over me being tossed by a rogue wave into the bottom of a Zodiac boat. . . . . while my ship had to up anchor and sail away to calmer waters before picking me up again. I hoped they'd stare in awe at me standing on Antarctic ice surrounded by half a million penguins - after all I was in awe myself and brought to tears by such an experience. Washing an elephant then riding it bareback into a Thai river; sipping afternoon tea in Dubai at the top of the tallest building in the world; photographing the 'big five' in Africa; being picked up by a helicopter (one mode of transport I said I'd never do!) then flying over the amazing Okavango Delta in Botswana because our little plane couldn't land on the flooded runway near our safari camp; standing on the very edge of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, clinging to Bob, while the Zambezi River flowed around us.  Now I wonder if they will ever really find any of that interesting with life changing so drastically.

There is so much more, so many wonderful memories, so little time left. . . . . and now perhaps compromised to the point where I may never travel on an expedition again. My wild wandering days may be over. I can't even get home to England this year unless things really change by Autumn. 

          

But I do have you, my always kind and gracious blog friends.

You keep me going - ladies and gentlemen - I like sharing
 life with you.
I have loved meeting many of you in person, and hope
 to do more of that if/when possible. 

Meanwhile, let's struggle along together - thanks so much
 to all of you who've offered to assist with New Blogger issues. 
I'm still toggling between legacy and new - hoping
 the powers that be will get it right soon.

With love -

Summer reading - after Ireland and Surgery. . . . . . . . . .

How lucky can I get!

No cancer, so very thankful. 

No major housework.

No lifting and bending.

No traveling, oh NO - just for a while though.

BUT. . . . . . all the time in the world to read wonderful books this week and next. 

These, waiting to be opened and have their pages turned, are full of promise.

Since coming home from Ireland a couple of weeks ago, I have been eager
 for the mailman who has showered me with new books. . . . . . . 

. . . . . . other than FALLEN by Lia Mills, a Dublin writer, which tweaked my
 curiosity when I photographed this Dublin street banner, and which
 I was able to purchase later at a tiny Killarney bookshop, my books have come
 to my mailbox. FALLEN is set in Dublin at the time of the 1916 Easter
Rising and is an historical story of a young woman coming of age amidst
 violence and loss.

MEADOWLAND - The Private Life Of An English Field
by John Lewis-Stempel somehow appeared online when looking for something else.
 I had to have it!

"In exquisite prose John Lewis-Stempel records the passing seasons in an

 ancient meadow on his farm."

That singular sentence was enough to tweak my appetite for learning more
 about my much loved English countryside - the fields of Devon were my
 playground and I will always remember and love them for ever.

ON AN IRISH ISLAND - The Lost World of the Great Blasket 
by Robert Kanigel. 
The story of Great Blasket Island is a must read because I'm now besotted by
 the history of this Irish island (the largest of a group named The Blasket Islands
 off the Dingle coastline) which was inhabited until the 1950's.

The House on an Irish Hillside by Felicity Hayes-McCoy is the
 new book I've decided to read first.
 It is so wonderful I plan to do a full post on it later.
 Just know I'm really happy to have found this book by this amazing author - and that
 I have been fortunate to have just visited the Dingle Peninsula where she lives
 for much of the year.

. . . . . . lastly, a new book about the extraordinary record-setting woman aviator,
 Beryl Markham, caught in a passionate love triangle with safari hunter
 Denis Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen who, as Isak Dinesen, wrote the
 classic memoir Out of Africa.
Circling The Sun by Paula McLain.

My read and reread dog-eared copy of West With The Night was written by Beryl
 herself and published in 1942. It has always been one of my favorite books
 about adventurous women and life in Kenya back in the 1930's.
Hmm, Kenya, Africa, Masai Mara, Safari, Big Five. . . . .some day!!!

All photos by me - thankfully a small camera is not very heavy!